Hillman Christmas Massive Missive 2021
It’s December, and we should be under a blanket of snow,
drinking something hot, and thinking about Christmas trees, wrapping presents,
and planning family gatherings.
But, when it’s 5C outside, and very little snow as yet,
it’s hard to even sit and write our Massive Christmas Missive!
But, it’s not only at this time of the year that we think
of our family and friends. You are often in our thoughts, and we
wish you all good health during these trying months due to the pandemic.
All we can do is get all our vaccines, boosters, and stay safe.
Let’s all wish for a Merry Christmas, and a Happy and
Healthier 2022!
Ja-On and Angela’s family is back to a somewhat
“normal” life with Inara and Tayla back in school instead
of home-schooling.
Inara (9 years old) is into her second year of ballet
and jazz classes, which she loves. She is a joy to watch with her crafting,
drawing, and reading skills. Inara is following in the Hillman family footsteps
with karate, testing for her red belt in Taekwondo. Gramma Sue-On
had to take her to one of her classes, little knowing that Gramma would
be the “bad guy” to be tossed about by Inara!
Both Inara and Tayla are in a pony club. They are not
only learning how to ride, but also how to take care of all things pertaining
to their horses. They obviously have a love for animals as they have taken
on some of the responsibilities of dog ownership with their Morkie Neelo.
Meanwhile, Tayla (7 years old), who was a tad leery about
going back to school after a year of homeschooling, has become the social
butterfly, making many new friends easily. Tayla is in her second year
of competitive gymnastics and working hard on her routines for January
youth competition. Capoeira, the Brazilian martial arts in which she excelled,
has been replaced with swimming lessons; something a little less aggressive!
Angela loves working along side Ja-On at reactive
massage and building a practice with amazing clients. She has taken on
more responsibility at the clinic and helps with the day to day running.
After a year of homeschooling, she is able to start enjoying some of her
own activities, not the least is the addition to their family: a little
Morky pup named Neelo. The whole family is learning how to navigate all
things puppy, including how to puppy proof the Christmas tree this year!
I think Neelo is a bit concerned with Ja’s Star Wars tree top!
Ja-On started scaling down his practice last year during
the pandemic to help Angela with the homeschooling. This year with the
girls back in school, he has kept the hours reduced and focused on business
growth as well as building his personal online brand through various social
media platforms. Hopefully, Covid will soon be under better control so
he can travel again – to continue training for his speciality – Osteopathy.
Soulin & Sarah moved back to Brandon when Sarah
completed her training at Wellington College. She started working at reactive
massage therapy clinic with Ja-On and enjoys working with the staff and
her clients. Soulin is working as a commissionaire at Shilo Armed Foces
base at the moment. He is currently waiting on his medical clearance to
join the air force as an Aviation Systems Technician.
Robin and Jen’s family has made the biggest changes
in our family.
During the summer, they took a family vacation to Newfoundland
– saw Cape Spear, Quidi Vidi, whales and puffins, amazing geology, fossils,
and ate lots of delicious seafood. They enjoyed St. John’s so much that
they’ve decided to move there in the summer of 2022!
But the bigger surprise was that they got married! Although
they’ve been happily together for almost 15 years, they decided to get
married in Ferryland, NL beside the ocean.
Robin continues to work as a Business Analyst with
Tactica
Interactive. His latest project is an application that allows farmers
to sell grain online. He has been working from home since March 2020.
He enjoys the newer motorcycle that Jen bought, so much so that he went
on a motorcycle trip with friends to BC! He’d also gone on quite
a few Manitoba trips with friends, and one that netted him a derby prize
of $500.00!
Robin also tossed this bit of a teaser for Mom, to see
if I was really paying attention! “Took a week-long certificate course
in rodeo clown techniques and bovine intervention" LOL!
Jen continues to work as an EA at an elementary school.
Meanwhile, she had been taking and completed a college course in Human
Resources, and completed a practicum at STEM Canada. The course
was on-line. Along with Robin working from home, it was a real bonus,
as they adopted a puppy in Dec. 2020, small black lab/border collie mix,
Jovi
(Their beloved Pyrenees Kiefer sadly passed away in Sept. 2020).
A lot of time has been dedicated to training and playing with her. In her
“spare time”, she enjoys riding her more reliable and modern motorcycle.
Her previous one was 51 years old! She has also joined a women’s recreational
soccer league – still working on scoring that first goal.
Oriyen is in grade Grade 11, excelling in drafting
classes in school . This was evident from her early interest and skills
in drawing, digital illustrations, and now, learning new photo editing
techniques. This focus will serve her well as she is interested in a career
in architecture. Oriyen has been a vegetarian by choice for many years,
and she continues to challenge her mom to find new and interesting vegetarian
dishes.
River is Grade 3 and continues to do quite well
in the French Immersion stream. She has a natural ear for music, much like
her Dad, Robin, playing music and singing. Like her big sister Oriyen,
River is also showing an interest in drawing. What we all love is her interest
in cooking! She has started making a few dishes independently. River and
Nana Sue-On have collaborated on a few dishes when they were here for Thanksgiving.
Nana especially enjoyed River’s scrambled eggs for breakfast!
China & Scott just celebrated their first
wedding anniversary on Dec 3rd! They are planning to have a wedding celebration
next fall, hopefully with family and friends. The renovations and construction
are done on the exterior of their home, so they will host the Hillman family
Christmas gathering again.
Scott recently completed his Critical Care Paramedic
course while continuing to work as an Advanced Care Paramedic Practitioner.
He spent several days down in Omaha on a practicum for the course.
China is kept busy at Winnipeg Health Science Centre
and two other hospitals as Doctor of Thoracic and General Radiology.
Both have busy schedules due to Covid, which seems to want to stay, wave
after wave.
China and Scott are happy to announce a new addition to
their family. Butterbean Pettitt-Hillman is a cuddly seven-month-old
Golden Retriever with a big personality. Butters loves people only slightly
less than he loves food. Big sister Lily, a Great Pyrenees, has
been showing him the ropes and keeping him in line.
Bill & Sue-On, the elders have been safely
ensconced at home and have had their Covid boosters. Now, everyone in the
family has been fully vaccinated, so we were able to have an early Christmas
gathering at China and Scott’s.
Bill has been dealing with medical issues, which
began last year with kidney stones and a blocked ureter. It’s been a year-long
process to which there hasn’t been a solution. Hopefully, the urologist
will be booking him in for a new procedure soon in the new year.
In spite of all, he continues to publish his weekly fanzine
for Edgar Rice Burroughs, and he continues to build on his mega 15,000-page
website empire. Along with his weekly and monthly Webzines, he is still
expanding the Gig Notes, Media, Music Roots and Travel Adventures sections
in our music memoir: BILL & SUE-ON HILLMAN: A +50-YEAR MUSICAL ODYSSEY
www.hillmanweb.com/book
Much of his time this year has been spent working on three companion autobiographies
which will be released in 2022. 1. The illustrated history of our Maple
Grove country home 1920-Present ~ 2. Bill's memories of the eight decades
from the 1940s-2020s complete with a zillion photos from our family albums
and 3. SUE-ON: MY STORY: www.hillmanweb.com/mystory
Sue-On spent much of the spring and summer gardening,
trying out new plants and adding more lawn ornaments. Seems my friends
are always on the lookout for items that may be of interest to me! It was
great to be able to see the kids and kidlets once in a while, but with
this new variant, Omicron, visits will be pretty limited. We miss the international
travels, but staying safe and healthy is the priority these days.
Our family photos are in a little different format this
year. Ja, Angela and the girls had developed terrible colds a few days
before our famly get-together. To be safe, they stayed home -- hence
the two photos.
All the Best for 2022!
Bill & Sue-On
https://www.hillmanweb.com
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL
BILL and SUE-ON
www.hillmanweb.com/xmas/2021.html
Many more of our tall tales are spread across our
main Website:
www.hillmanweb.com
:: www.hillmanweb.com/book
www.hillmanweb.com/soos
:: www.hillmanweb.com/xmas
